PLANNING FOR GROWTH IN YEARS OF RESTRICTED RESOURCES

OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOMBROADCASTERS-IN-RESIDENCEPROGRAM, BALL STATE UNIVERSITY ANDACTION NEWS 10 WTHI TERRE HAUTE,INDIANA: A REVIEWTim Pollard, Ball State Universitytpollard@bsu.eduGenie Garner, WTHI Action News 10ggarner@emmis.wthi.comAbstractThis article highlights the cooperative venture between Ball State University’sDepartment of Telecommunications and WTHI-TV using AEJMC’s “Broadcaster’s-In-Residence” Program. This endeavor allowed students to work at a small market newsstation, producing product that was shown on the station’s early and late newscast.The station sent many of its staff to Ball State University to lecture students in classesand work with them on the student-produced news program, NewsCenter 43. Therewere five visits allowing students to work in a “real world” news environment, whileprofessionals from WTHI-TV had the opportunity to interact with students in anacademic environment.In the academic year, 2001-2002, an cooperative agreement between theDepartment of Telecommunications at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, andWTHI-TV, an Emmis-owned CBS affiliate in Terre Haute, Indiana, was establishedusing a grant from the Association for Education in Journalism and MassCommunication (AEJMC) and funded by the Knight Foundation. The agreementallowed television news professionals from WTHI to come to Ball State’s campus andstudents from the Department of Telecommunications reciprocated by going to TerreHaute and working for WTHI’s Action News 10 daily newscast. The newsprofessionals came three times to campus (twice in the fall of 2001, and once in thespring of 2002) and were allowed to attend classes, work with the students on newsmatters, and provide commentary and guidance on the department’s signature studentnewscast, NewsCenter 43 In return, selected students went to Terre Haute and workedin the newsroom, went out and reported on stories in the field, and were on cameraduring the newscast. Two students who were interested in a career in on-camerameteorology were allowed to do actual cut-ins during live, local cut-ins during the CBSnetwork feed of CBS This Morning. During this time period, ample free time forstudents and professionals to interact was incorporated into the schedule.The arrangement, based on the Professionals-In-Residence grant program, was for an65Feedback September 2003 (Vol. 44, No. 4)